[Totenkopf]

Ahhhh, just got back from a week in Cancun, 90 degree weather, warm blue waters, dark-skinned honeys (although, I had to keep my eyes straight since I was with my woman), cheap booze.....it was paradise.

However, there was one part of the trip that was seriously depressing, or perhaps sobering is a better word. For the most part, we traveled the Yucatan penisula on our own vehicle, staying away from the tourist traps, and experiencing the "real" side of Mexico. I speak very little Spanish, but enough for us to get by.

We did though, on one day, go to a tourist spot. A state park that they have set up that is just beautiful. It is a huge lagoon, with some of the most spectacular snorkling that you can imagine. The place would've been perfect except for one thing....Americans.

I had to travel out of my country to realize what my fellow countrymen are like. I have never experienced a more arrogant, pushy, ethnocentric group of people before in my life. What also helped this experience is that my fiance and myself don't look like a "typical" American couple. She is part Korean, and I can pass for Hispanic when I gave a tan going. As such, we were treated with contempt as well. We were pushed off paths by Americans, ignored by Americans, talked down to by Americans, etc. One was so bad that she saw my fiance get off her bar stool, ran over to it to sit down, then as we asked her politely to get back up as we were there first, she had the gall to say that my girl was a "darkie", and could sit out in the sun. That was a fun scene.....

The worst though, was watching the way the Americans treated the Mexican workers at these places. They straight treated them like dirt, like a lesser class. We had one guy tell us they didn't need to tip the waiters because they were Mexican! What kind of fucking reasoning is that? I would've passed off that it was an isolated incident, but we did not see one American group tip their waiter all day....not one! And let me tell you, I spent some major time at the bar that day.

At one of the restraunts, I was treated like a king. I asked the manager why, and he said it was because I spoke Spanish, and had been tipping everyone when I was in there. He asked us where we were from and I told him the United States. He didn't believe us until I showed him my drivers license. He told me that I was the nicest American he had ever met!

Know I am beginning to understand all the anti-American feeling out there. If any of you are traveling abroad, I hope you can take the time to step back and take a look at your actions. Take the time to get to know the people around you, treat them as equals, no matter their situation. Seriously, I was so embarrassed to be an American that day, it was pathetic.